Bikies quit clubs, hire lawyers, in wake of Qld's tough new laws
Updated
The Queensland Government says the crackdown on bikie gangs will only get tougher despite the resignations of some members.
The new laws take affect from midnight (AEST) and there are indications some clubs are disbanding.
Senior members of the Bandidos in Brisbane and the Gold Coast have sought legal advice and signed statutory declarations to say they have left the club.
Bandidos gang members in Queensland from other chapters have also hired lawyers and signed documents to resign from their clubs.
It has been reported three other clubs on the Gold Coast, the Finks, Rebels and Nomads, have closed their clubs and are moving interstate to escape the crackdown.
Life member of the Bandidos Moorooka chapter on Brisbane's southside, Mario Vosmaer, has hired a lawyer to help him to resign from the club.
His lawyer Ashkan Tai says Mr Vosmaer has quit and is now in the process of closing down the Moorooka club.
Mr Tai says Mr Vosmaer will be handing in his colours today and he expects many more members to follow.
"Mr Vosmaer had given me instructions that all the Bandidos insignia was being removed and that was part of all the material that was being sent back to the national leadership," he said.
"That was his decision to leave the club and dismantle the club."
In Mackay in north Queensland, the Rebels Club has also scaled back its presence in the community.
The club says it has postponed its car and bike show scheduled for this weekend due to "circumstances at the present time".
The Rebels say donations they have collected over the year will still be donated to the CQ Rescue helicopter service.
'Authorities will not be fooled'
However, senior police say they are concerned the surrender of club leathers is a token gesture.
Superintendent Jim Keogh, the head of Taskforce Takeback, says those who have resigned from clubs may still be planning criminal enterprises.
He says it is not clear how many bikies have broken away from their gangs and is not convinced they have all abandoned criminal activity.
"It would be foolhardy to think they wouldn't still be collaborating behind closed doors," he said.
"We have only seen probably in the last 24 hours some overt acts by the criminal motorcyclists to step away from clubs.
"I'm not going to comment until I am quite certain they are not making some sort of attempt to reform and recontinue their bad old ways."
Superintendent Keogh says the resignations make no difference to the police crackdown.
"The mere handing in of leathers or moving away from a club is a matter for themselves," he said.
"Police will continue to maintain the impetus in relation to the criminal motorcyclists - whether they are in a clubhouse or whether they are at home or whether they choose to get different premises."
Police Minister Jack Dempsey says authorities will not be fooled.
"I won't stop until all of them are in," he said.
"It's not just the colours - it's the criminal activity and they will be hunted down no matter what.
"I don't care whether they're wearing pink toupees or pretending to be other groups - we will make sure they go through the judicial system and do their time."
Laws just 'scatter the problem'
Criminal lawyer Bill Potts, who has represented motorcycle club members on the Gold Coast, there appears to be no mechanism for bikies to legally quit their clubs under the laws, and prove it when they are stopped in the street by a police officer.
"If one gets a divorce you go to a court and the court nullifies your marriage," he said.
"Under this legislation, there simply appears to be no power by which the public, the police, or the Government can be satisfied that someone is no longer associated.
"I challenge the Premier and the Attorney-General to explain how it may be that bikies wishing to disassociate themselves from their clubs - I'd ask them to show us the mechanism by which this can be done," he said.
Qld anti-bikie laws include:
- Extra powers for CMC
- Bikie-only prison at Woodford, north of Brisbane
- Mandatory sentences of 15 years for serious crimes committed as part of gang activity, on top of the normal penalty
- Club office bearers will be sentenced to another 10 years in jail, and parole will only be granted if the offender cooperates with police
- Convicted bikies subjected to strict drug tests and searches in prison
- No gym facilities or TV access in jail
- Phone calls in jail to be monitored, except those relating to legal reps
- Inmates' mail opened and censored
- Visitor contact restricted to one hour a week
- Bikie criminals in other state prisons to be transferred to Woodford
- Introducing a licensing regime for tattoo parlours and artists, banning bikie gang members
- Motorcycles to be crushed as punishment for certain crimes
Gold Coast criminologist and former detective Terry Goldsworthy says he is concerned the laws may simply scatter the problem.
Mr Goldsworthy says the legislation may not bring an end to law-breaking.
"If you want to control the ant nest and eradicate the ants, the easiest way to do it is attack them at the nest because they're all in one place and it's really obvious where they are, you know who they are," he said.
"What we've done now is basically kick the ant nest over and the ants are either going to go underground or they're going to spread out all over the place.
"While these guys do attract to the colours to some degree, it did make it easy for police to clearly identify who they are.
"There's no doubt a Bandido's a Bandido when they're riding along with their colours on the back and it also made it easy for the public to identify them and supply intelligence.
"That source of [intelligence] of the public movements of the bikies to a degree I think will now be lost cause - they simply won't be that overtly identifiable."
Lawyer Jeff Johnson, a former member of the Liberal National Party's state executive, is concerned the crackdown on outlaw motorcycle gangs could wrongly sweep up innocent people.
Mr Johnson says a reputable businessman friend this year found out police had labelled him as an associate of the Black Uhlans club, simply for taking part in a charity ride in which bikies were involved.
He says such intelligence and the new bikie legislation could mean law-abiding citizens are wrongly targeted.
"Because of the fact they ride motorbikes and may inadvertently have become associated using 'that term' ... with people who might have had some contact with outlaw motorcycle gangs," he said.
Topics: police, laws, crime-prevention, crime, public-sector, state-parliament, moorooka-4105, mackay-4740, brisbane-4000, southport-4215
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